VISUAL TIMELINE
Rolling blackouts – Six stages of Eskom-induced grief and pain
Illustrative image | Sources: Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images ) | Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla) | Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan. (Photo: ESA Alexander / Sunday Times) | Electricity transmission pylons. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images) | A coal delivery truck at the Eskom Matla coal-fired power station in Mpumalanga. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Power lines in the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay, Cape Town. (Photo: Dwayne Senior / Bloomberg via Getty Images) | An instrument panel at the Eskom Lethabo coal-fired power station in Vereeniging. (Photo: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
How on Earth did we get to Stage 6 of rolling blackouts? We pore over Eskom statements to try to figure that one out.
As Daily Maverick has reported, 2022 has been the worst year for scheduled power cuts by the monopoly energy utility. There have been cuts on more than 100 days this year – and 2022 was 260 days old on 18 September.
The timeline below illustrates just how the country landed in this tumultuous position:
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Presidency stays silent on Energy Action Plan while South Africans kept in the dark”
Read more in Daily Maverick: “President Ramaphosa cuts short foreign trips to address SA’s power crisis”
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Waking up to Stage 6, now Eskom execs are fighting to fend off Stage 8 power cuts”
Read more in Daily Maverick: “No joke: Eskom wants you to pay 32% more for your electricity from 1 April 2023”
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Please don’t just “pore over Eskom”, rather pore over the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Cde Gwede, and ask him to account for the lack of investment in the electricity supply industry for many, many years. I look forward to reading an interview with him [that includes tough, relevant questions].
Agree wholeheartedly.
What is the point of being tax compliant when you get treated like this. Our cities are a mess, our schools underfunded and a mess, our hospitals are a mess, our government departments don’t work, our monopolistic State owned enterprises are “stolen” – took the ANC 28 years to take a fully functioning 1st world nation and turn it into a bottom of the barrel 3rd world disaster. VIVA ANC, VIVA.
Can all be summed up in 3 letters – ANC. What more is there to say?
What are you going to do about it?
Spot on. It’s as simple as that. What the ANC has not stolen it has destroyed.
Incompetence, incompetence and again incompetence. It is very clear that those responsible for maintenance have no clue as to what their jobs are, either poorly trained or not trained at all. where is the Minister responsible who just has not got the guts to talk to the nation? the real sad thing that if the municipalities paid over the money owed to Eskom this might be a bit of the solution to get the right people who know what to do. where was the Acting President when this was going on? It is clear that this scenario has no end in sight and Eskom want 38% increase. for what?
We arrived here by employing a jockey who is on a dead horse. The fellow is a very confused CEO who needs to be shown the door as quickly as possible. He is employed to run a company whose power stations are a coal fleet but he is not interested in fixing Eskom but is looking at green energy when he is employed by Eskom and his posture as the leader of ESKOM requires that he be fired and an appropriate person who can fix ESKOM and use the resources the country has must be employed. He must go and open his own business of solar and wind energy and not use our country as an experiment. He is completely incompetent. He is not focusing on the company he is supposed to run. The other issue for purposes of focus, green energy must removed as a concern of Eskom. We must
bring Calitz to run Eskom not the clowns that are destroying our economy.
Well, our power stations are either on their last legs, or are being targeted by saboteurs. A pattern emerges when you look at it like this in a detailed timeline of ‘failures’. We are under attack, clearly. Ramaphosa needs to first get rid of NDZ chop-chop then declare a State of Disaster to short circuit the red tape around renewables. We have to get real. What happens if the grid fails?
Don’t forget there are wage “negotiations” going on. A little extra pressure to squeeze out an extra percent or two? The average wages at Eskom are already much higher than the national average, but a few more percent can’t hurt… And the staff complement is 40 to 60% above comparable utilities elsewhere. RET is here already.
De Ruyter could do with way better PR! Tell it like it is.
You get rid of competent ethical white employees as part of your political “project”
You steal money for maintenance because that does not have immediate negative effects
You sabotage equipment in order to take a cut off the repair work under sub contracts You ensure that there are labour regulations that protect the incompetent and the criminals
To turn this around takes many years because there is no data to use to allow you to plan and so much predominantly white experienced and honest people have left the country.
Give De Ruyter emergency powers to hire and fire at will for the greater good asa start,